Echoes of Parkland shooting reset school security in Leon County

Seniors at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, are rallying their sports teams and after-school clubs to honor their fallen cross-country coach and reclaim Valentine's Day.
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When the bell rings for lunch at Leon High School, students spill out across the campus. Some hop in their cars and leave. Others walk home or to nearby stores. Some hang out on the steps leading up to the school on Tennessee Street.

The openness that allows its students to roam freely creeps up as safety concern for officials and students. The district's goal is to reduce the number of entry points to the sprawling campus and the other high schools in the district.

“Obviously (I feel) less safe since the Parkland shooting because it’s disturbing that it happened, but it’s not to the point where I feel uncomfortable being at school," said freshman Nicolas Ponder. “I know that it’s a thing that doesn’t normally happen, and I know teachers and staff will do everything to keep us safe.”

Lockdown drills are taken more seriously now, he said. One teacher has a tape line that students are supposed to stay behind. It represents the line of sight into the classroom. Students stay off their phones and quietly wait for the drill to pass.

Teachers communicate with their students how to stay safe if there is an emergency. They take time from their class schedule to make a plan since classrooms vary in layout.

“I think knowledge is power,” said senior Ashley Campbell, who is the district’s student School Board representative. “They’re doing a good job of keeping us informed and in the loop on what we should do, what the proper steps to take in this sort of environment”

Before the mass shooting last year, "hardening" projects were funded with Homeland Security grants. The district staffed a 24-hour security center starting in 2009. After the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, many elementary schools in the district changed how their campuses could be accessed.

“Our district for years has placed security as a top priority,” LCS Chief of Security John Hunkiar said. “These are not new items. What (the new law) did give us was the resources to make it happen quickly. And there are requirements that are much stronger to provide consistency across the state.”

The district received about $2.4 million in Safe School money from the state. But it wasn't enough to implement all the requirements. About $600,000 came from the district's general fund, which is the same pot of money that pays teacher salaries.

The money was used to meet the state mandate to put a law enforcement officer in every school. Through a school resource program, middle and high schools have a Leon County Sheriff’s Office deputy on campus. Bond, Pineview Sabal Palm elementary schools, Gretchen Everhart School and the elementary schools outside of city limits also have an LCSO deputy.

The remaining elementary schools within city limits and charter schools are staffed with off-duty TPD officers and LCSO deputies who sign up on a rotating basis.

Since its implementation, schools have been staffed 98.5 percent of the time, the district said. The only gap was following Hurricane Michael, when officers were dispatched to other cities.

Superintendent Rocky Hanna has met with city officials to create a plan that would staff elementary schools with TPD officers the same way middle and high schools are staffed. Within the next month, he hopes to create a partnership between TPD and the district.

It would place the same officer in every school. Those officers also would be able to help with school programs about safety and anti-drug use.

Leon County Sheriff's Department Deputy Jennifer Morris, school resource officer at Cobb Middle School, sits down with a group of students during lunch Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019. Tori Schneider/Tallahassee Democrat

Leon County Sheriff's Department Deputy Jennifer Morris, school resource officer at Cobb Middle School, sits down with a group of students during lunch Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019. Tori Schneider/Tallahassee Democrat

Leon County Sheriff's Department Deputy Jennifer Morris, school resource officer at Cobb Middle School, sits down with a group of students during lunch Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019. Tori Schneider/Tallahassee Democrat

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Another $1.2 million from the LCS general fund put unarmed security monitors on campuses at the beginning of the school year. Each high school has three monitors and middle and elementary schools have one security monitor.

LCS recently received a $1.2 million "target-hardening" grant that Hunkiar said will touch virtually every campus. It will upgrade security cameras and make sure parking lots have camera coverage. Mass communication speakers will be installed at high schools. The money covers checkpoint construction at some elementary schools to make sure visitors don’t have direct access to hallways before they check in.

One of the other projects the grant will go toward is eliminating entrances at high schools. Hanna said he doesn't want the schools to feel like prisons and wants students who need to leave for work or appointments to be able to do so.

“Before anything academically, we have to ensure that when kids leave for school and return home, they’re safe,” Hanna said. “There’s no fail-safe, 100-percent plan, but I can assure you that all of our time, effort, energy and resources are focused on going back to job one – and that’s keeping people safe.”’

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Leon County Sheriff's Department Deputy Jennifer Morris, school resource officer at Cobb Middle School, sits down with a group of students during lunch Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019. (Photo: Tori Schneider/Tallahassee Democrat)

The new resources go beyond the physical safety of staff and students. Part of the mandate focused on students’ mental health. They include a $850,000 stipend for Leon County. The district has a partnership with Disc Village that places a mental health counselor in every school. Some funding was directed to intervention programs.

Student screenings completed by teachers on whether students have isolated themselves or have bullying concerns have been enhanced. The funding also allows for the integration of suicide prevention and substance abuse prevention programs in middle and high schools.

While those measures are important, the most significant safeguard is communication, both Hunkiar and Hanna stressed.

“Fences and cameras and access control and all of the security features that are commonplace in schools are not the single answer to it,” Hunkiar said. “The answer to it is people. And people providing information and letting us know when there are concerns.”

The district has a local hotline, 850-922-KIDS, that allows people to call in tips. The Fortify Florida smartphone app allows residents to anonymously submit tips. A change in legislation makes it a felony to make a threat against an institution, including a school. The district fields potential threats from social media posts on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat.

“There’s no data to show exactly what you’ve prevented, but we feel like we’ve had a very good safety record here,” Hunkiar said. “But as you look at each of these tragedies – in Las Vegas, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, Columbine – you have to be widely prepared and realistic in terms of what we’re doing.”